Shamshera director Karan Malhotra on his rapport with Sanjay Dutt: Don’t even use words, eye contact mein ho jaata hai

Shamshera will see director Karan Malhotra reunite with Sanjay Dutt once again. Malhotra had first collaborated with the actor in the 2012 film Agneepath, which marked the former’s directorial debut. The director recently opened up about the rapport he shared with the veteran actor.

In conversation with ETimes, the director spoke of how he got to know Dutt only after they worked together in Agneepath, in which the latter essayed the role of antagonist Kancha Cheena. Speaking of how much he enjoyed working with the actor, Malhotra said that he was blown away by the way Dutt had ‘owned’ his character. When Shuddh Singh was being characterised, Malhotra had thought about Dutt.

While filming Shamshera, Malhotra recalled how Dutt would come to set and ask the director about his scenes. When Malhotra explained it to him, Dutt would ask the former to act the scene out. After observing Malhotra act out the scene,with ‘childlike excitement’, Dutt would make the role his own with his trademark screen presence and delivery. “Now with him, I don’t have to tell him anything in words. Eye contact mein ho jaata hai", Malhotra added.

Malhotra said that even though he had a good rapport with the actor, he would never use it to ask Dutt to do a role which was not ‘deserving’ of the latter. The director said that he knew Dutt could not say no to him, but Malhotra would never take advantage of that. Calling Dutt’s presence in films ‘special’, Malhotra said that he tried to respect their bond as much as he could.

In addition to Dutt, Shamshera also stars Ranbir Kapoor and Vaani Kapoor as Balli and Sona respectively. The film is bankrolled by Aditya Chopra under Yash Raj Films.

Shamshera is all set to hit the big screens on July 22, 2022.